Instagram accounts fuelling Ceuta crisis with paid advice for help to cross

This weekend, Mohammed plans to travel from Morocco to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, on the northern tip of Africa. The Moroccan man in his twenties is seeking to emigrate to Europe, inspired by Instagram videos that portray the journey as effortless. He reaches out to various Instagram accounts, one of which promises assistance for a fee.

However, Mohammed is not an actual person, but a fabricated account created to uncover a network of interlinked Instagram profiles that are fueling the influx of migrants to Ceuta through promotional content and paid advice. This issue is exacerbated by roughly 78,000 migrants from Morocco arriving by sea in Ceuta in a single day last month, resulting in 100 deaths according to the Mayor of Ceuta.

Despite the current calm, this crisis has heightened tensions between EU nations sharing open borders and sparked criticism of the Spanish government. The BBC's Top Comment podcast has identified numerous Instagram profiles that depict the short swim across the Morocco-Ceuta border fence as secure and straightforward, but in reality, many have drowned or taken longer routes.

These accounts also erroneously portray Ceuta as a feasible route to mainland Europe. Research suggests that this has contributed to the surge, alongside misinformation about changes to Spanish immigration law and allegations about lax border controls. The BBC discovered that Meta, the owner of Instagram, is actively monitoring the situation in Ceuta and removing content that violates their policies, including posts offering assistance with human smuggling services.